Tanner Houck opens up on most difficult part of recovery from face surgery
Tanner Houck opens up on most difficult part of recovery from face surgery
Tanner Houck was last on the mound for the Red Sox on June 16th with the New York Yankees in town. Houck was able to pitch four innings and gave up only one run before being struck by a line drive in the face.
Six weeks later, Houck is now throwing bullpens in Worcester and prepping for his upcoming rehab.
“It’s been a fairly easy recovery.” Houck told Beyond the Monster. “There wasn’t much to it other than just waiting and letting everything settle down. Main worries right now are just not ‘Valsalva’ing’ if anyone knows what exactly what that means. It’s been a good process, it’s been an easy process in terms of recovery. It’s not an arm issue or a baseball related injury at all so in terms of getting back, I felt normal. I have just been knocking a little rust off.”
For those like myself who might have to look up the term ‘Valsalva’, I have you covered after a quick Google search.
The Valsalva maneuver is performed by a forceful attempt of exhalation against a closed airway, usually done by closing one's mouth and pinching one's nose shut while expelling air out as if blowing up a balloon.
Bottom line is he needs to be careful after having a plate inserted into his cheek after the injury, so this would make sense given the sensitive area.
“The hardest part after the surgery was the calorie intake.” Houck said. “I was on a liquid diet for two days and a puree diet for seven after that. That was definitely the hardest part because I was really low energy with not a lot going into the system. I didn’t want to walk and do much physical activity. That would’ve made me just lose more weight. Luckily once I started eating, everything really started to ramp up and I really started to feel good after that.”
The MLB trade deadline is next Monday, and Houck won’t be beginning his rehab outings until after the deadline passes. The Red Sox have been linked to a few pitchers as we get closer to deadline day. Will that change Houck’s role once retrurning?
“Haven’t talked to the club yet.” Houck noted about his role. “Just been getting back to health and being 100% and having that conversation from there. As we get closer, we will have more of a conversation to know what I am doing building up wise. Rehab outings are about in a week. We cross that bridge of roles once we get a little bit closer.”
It has been a busy week over in Worcester with quite a few MLB rehabbers around. Trevor Story, Corey Kluber, Chris Sale, Reese Mcguire, Garrett Whitlock, Kaleb Ort, and Houck have all been spotted around the WooSox clubhouse.
“It stinks that we are all down at the same time but it’s one of those things where injuries are going to happen, but it is nice having other pitchers here.” Houck added. “We can work together and push each other in the weight room so it’s been good. Unfortunate for all of us but we will all be back soon.”
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